Parents, students, teachers, all,
May your newly-structured days breathe with creativity,
Your new duties be infused with delight.
As you write on those fresh new calendars
May you trust that your plans are a lot like magic ink.
Much may seem to disappear into obscurity,
but whatever is done in love will remain. 

                              —Kate Bowler

As it is each time we open our doors on the first day of school, there was an electric energy in the air this morning, as children reconnected with friends and explored their new classrooms, and teachers welcomed students with big smiles and high-fives.

The “first day” is always brimming with mixed emotions, as everyone has a different relationship with this new beginning. For some, the transition can take some time before they feel fully secure, while others make their way onto campus with hardly a backward glance. Each child charts their own journey, and it is our job as adults to meet them where they are and accompany them as they figure out how to make their way. It is some of the most noble work of being human.

As I write this, teachers are already attuning to their students, observing them thoughtfully and planning ways to connect with and inspire each one. Students are abuzz with questions and nuggets to share about themselves, confident that they will be seen and appreciated for their unique personalities, interests, and mindsets.

I have observed Preschool students assembling puzzles on the carpet, elementary students playing soccer with friends and practicing dance routines, middle school students engaging in team building activities, and students of all ages congregating in circles with friends to share summer adventures. Their joy at being together is genuine and infectious. New students are being welcomed into the fold, and by the end of the day, they will be indistinguishable from friends who have been at Turning Point for years.

These successful reunions grow from the strength of our community.

This year our essential question is: How can we build strong bridges? Creating connections is essential to learning: connections between students and teachers, among students, between students and ideas, and between parents and the school. As interconnected and interdependent beings, we need the gifts and contributions of all to build a strong community defined by integrity, fellowship, and creativity. We know that creativity comes not from a bolt of inspiration from out of the blue but from the heady alchemy of uniting disparate ideas that no one previously thought to connect to generate something that wasn’t there before.

Similarly, the first day of school is a transition between two spans of time, and as such, can co-mingle joy and loss for parents and caregivers as we celebrate our children’s next step in the process of becoming while we simultaneously mourn the stage they are leaving behind. Our children harbor all the previous phases of their life even as they are becoming something new, and the first day of school reminds us that as they grow, they must necessarily grow away from us to become their best and most authentic selves.

As Kate Bowler notes above, it is a time of year when we lay the groundwork of routines and schedules that may seem pedestrian but make possible the enduring qualities that can only come from the magical elixir of care, dedication, and love.

I wish you a wonderful school year filled with the wonders of the unknown, still to be written on those “fresh, new calendars” and that will undoubtedly surprise and delight us.

Warmly,
Laura

Dr. Laura Konigsberg
Head of School
lkonigsberg@turningpointschool.org